Food product heating devices such as toasters are generally known in the industry. These toasters may be used to heat a variety of products such as bread, rolls, muffins, biscuits, bagels, and other similar food products. In some commercial toasters used in high volume environments, a conveyor belt system may move the food product through a length of the device to apply heat to the food product in a desired manner. These toasters, commonly called conveyor toasters, may be configured in a number of orientations such as, for example, a generally vertical orientation whereby the food product moves from an upper portion of the device to a lower portion of the device to be heated. U.S. Pub. No. 2010/0275789 discloses a representative vertical food heating device. In other examples, the toaster may be configured in a generally horizontal orientation where the conveyor belt system moves the food product from one side of the toaster to the other side. U.S. Pat. No. 7,800,023 discloses a representative horizontal food heating device.
In horizontally-oriented conveyor belt heating systems, the food product is often fed onto the conveyor belt system by an angled in-feed rack. These racks are generally oriented downwardly and typically rely on gravitational forces to cause the food product to advance towards the conveyor belt system. Multiple food products may come into contact with each other during the in-feed process. For example, when a leading food product advances to the conveyor belt from the in-feed rack for a horizontally-oriented conveyor belt heating system, a subsequent or trailing food product may become wedged or caught under the leading food product due to a leading portion of the trailing food product contacting the conveyor belt before the trailing portion of the trailing food product contacts the conveyor belt. Such a configuration may produce a result commonly referred to as “shingling,” where leading and trailing food items partially occupy the same space, i.e., the leading portion of a trailing food product and the trailing portion of a preceding or leading food product overlap. Shingling can occur with the trailing product being disposed either over or under the leading product. During the shingling process typically observed in conventional horizontally-oriented conveyor belt heating systems, a trailing food product contacts and undermines a portion of the leading food product such that the leading food product is unevenly toasted, and the trailing food product may also be unevenly toasted in addition to both products possibly being damaged or broken during conveyance travel. As a result of this shingling occurring, one or both of the food products may be unsuitable for consumption or sale, which may result in inefficient and/or costly food preparation.